Chapter 112

Chapter 112. I Saved This World

I went out to explore the frontier with Knight Commander Axel, who had become Baron of Provence.

The purpose was to find out why Count Toulouse had been so obsessed with this region.

When we reached the Provence development area, thirteen Wood Golems were diligently pulling up trees and leveling the ground.

They worked twenty-four hours a day.

They used mana.

And they were ridiculously strong.

The speed of development was astonishing.

At this rate, I felt as though we might cut through the Great Forest and reach Liguria within two or three years.

"My lord."

Axel looked around.

"I've already searched this entire region, but I couldn't find any unusual structures or objects."

"They could be underground."

I handed him a long metal probe.

"If you find terrain where sediment seems to have accumulated, stab probes into the ground and check for buried structures."

"Do you think Count Toulouse is searching for ruins?"

"Most likely."

I looked toward the forest.

"This area was once occupied by the Calipha Dynasty. He may have found something in ancient records."

The lighthouse pyramid at Marcel Harbor was also a Calipha ruin.

After that dynasty collapsed, the rapidly expanding Great Forest swallowed most of this region.

The fact that Blago's brown bear ancestors had once lived here made that easy to infer.

We continued searching.

Several days later, one of the golems struck something beneath the soil.

Thud.

"Hm?"

I ordered it to clear the ground.

A stone ceiling appeared.

Axel knelt and brushed away the dirt.

"This doesn't look like a house."

"Dig around it."

The golems began removing soil.

Eventually, a hole opened.

Cold air drifted upward.

I looked down.

There was a chamber below.

"Looks like we found something."

Axel drew his sword.

"I'll go first."

"No. I'll go."

I jumped down.

The chamber was not large.

A stone altar stood in the center.

Strange writing covered its surface.

I'd seen Calipha writing before.

This wasn't it.

On top of the altar lay something wrapped in black cloth.

I carefully pulled it open.

"...What the fuck?"

It was a hand.

A mummified human-like hand.

Except it didn't really look human.

The fingers were unnaturally long.

The nails looked like claws.

Even dried and shriveled, it had an appearance that reminded me more of a demon than a person.

Axel landed beside me.

"My lord..."

"I know."

This was suspicious as hell.

I didn't touch the hand directly.

"Seal the area."

"Yes."

"Put up a fence aboveground and station guards. Don't let anyone come down here."

"Understood."

* * *

We continued searching Provence afterward.

But we found nothing that explained what Count Toulouse had been pursuing.

There were occasional buried houses and graves.

Nothing meaningful.

Could Count Toulouse have been searching for that altar?

If so, it was extremely suspicious.

No matter how mummified it was, that hand looked and felt almost demonic.

And the altar itself was covered in a language I'd never seen before.

It definitely wasn't a Calipha ruin.

I should have someone investigate it.

It feels too suspicious to ignore.

I needed someone who knew ancient dynasties other than Calipha.

One person immediately came to mind.

Amar Mustafa Hussein.

He was the teacher of Young Lord Vincent, the likely next Duke of Veneto and a strong candidate for the next emperor.

He was also a chief researcher at the Basra Mage Tower, where evil energy was studied.

I'd already been considering asking him questions about evil energy.

This was a good opportunity to bring him here.

While I was writing a letter to Amar, the Head Maid entered with several new maids.

Everyone employed at the lord's residence was checked using [Convenient Lesser Appraisal] before being hired.

So from time to time, I personally conducted group inspections like this.

"My lord, these are the newly selected maids."

"Form one line abreast. Half an arm between each person."

The maids lined up.

I appraised them one by one.

Then,

Got one.

[Milika, 21 years old]

[Daughter of Miloslav, farmer of Čačak. Member of the organization "Three Eyes." Serves Hela.]

I looked at her.

Milika lowered her eyes nervously.

She probably thought I was merely inspecting the new servants.

I moved on as though I'd seen nothing.

Once the others were dismissed, the Head Maid asked quietly,

"How should I handle her?"

She had experienced this several times already.

"Put her somewhere easy."

"Easy?"

"Looks like she's had a hard life. Don't give her anything too brutal."

The Head Maid nodded.

"But don't make it too comfortable either. Is there somewhere she'll stay in your sight?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"Cleaning the latrines."

"..."

Actually, that was a cushy position.

Apart from the filth and smell, there was almost no difficult physical labor.

And because so many people constantly went in and out of the latrine areas, monitoring her would be easy.

"Fine. Handle it."

"Yes, my lord."

Another spy entered my surveillance network.

That brought the number of spies I was monitoring to seventeen.

Everyone seemed to send them.

They really kept coming no matter what.

But it didn't matter how many arrived.

I could simply put every one of them into obscure positions or hard jobs.

Most spies were well trained and surprisingly capable workers.

I'll work you until your backs break.

* * *

Later, Chloe arrived with another report.

"My lord."

"What now?"

"The Delhi Sultanate has collapsed."

"...Why the hell did they suddenly collapse?"

"The local powers they had been suppressing with money all rose at once."

Chloe placed a report on the desk.

"The price of tea leaves crashed. The king went bankrupt."

I blinked.

Coffee had recently become wildly popular.

Tea consumption had dropped sharply.

Not to zero.

Only around twenty-five percent.

But when consumption fell by twenty-five percent, the market price could fall far more than twenty-five percent.

High-end tea leaves consumed by nobles were especially devastated.

Countless merchants and financiers were connected to the tea trade.

A reduction in distribution had caused losses all along the chain.

As far as I knew, the Delhi Sultanate had been politically dominated by the king and the merchant class.

Both had collapsed at the same time because of the tea crash.

A liquidity crisis followed.

The local powers could no longer endure it and rose in rebellion.

"Have they chosen a new king?"

"No."

"A new dynasty?"

"No."

"Then what happened?"

"The local lords each founded their own states."

"..."

I stared at the report.

Coffee.

A drink I'd introduced because I wanted something decent to drink.

That coffee had destroyed a country thousands of kilometers away.

Holy shit.

I leaned back in my chair.

I saved this world.

Or perhaps ruined part of it.

Depending on your perspective.